Gov. Charlie Crist said Thursday he’s calling a special session of the Legislature in less than two weeks and will ask lawmakers to consider a proposed constitutional amendment to ban offshore oil drilling. His proclamation sets the session dates as July 20-23.

At a hastily-called news conference, Crist said the session would be devoted to one issue — “a rifle shot,” he called it — to give the voters of Florida a say on drilling. But in doing so, he violated a cardinal rule of Tallahassee politics by calling for a special session without a consensus with legislative leaders.

Crist had been calling for a special session for weeks, but the idea was frowned upon by state House leadership. A spokeswoman for Speaker Larry Cretul told The Florida Independent last week that a special session should meet two standards: It should address an urgent problem and there should be a clear plan for doing so. Last year’s special session on high-speed rail, which had to meet deadlines for federal funding, met those standards, while a ban on drilling, which is already barred from state waters, may not.

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USF President Judy Genshaft has fired controversial University of South Florida Polytechnic Chancellor Marshall Goodman, according to a press release sent out around noon. Goodman had been mired in controversy over attempts to grant USF Polytechnic independence from the main USF campus — a debate that had drawn lawmakers from both sides of the issue.